Flybe reaction

The travel industry has expressed sadness and shock at the announcement that Flybe has gone into administration.

Agents took to social media, including the Travel Gossip Facebook site, to share comments, with one saying: "Massive blow for the West Country. My thoughts with Flybe staff."

Another agent said: "We have surely got to be the most resilient people in any industry. Keep your head up all you incredible agents."

Another travel employee posted on Travel Gossip to offer a lift to any cabin crew who wanted to get from Glasgow to Newcastle. He described the situation as ‘yet another testing time for our industry’.

Other members of the travel industry then followed his lead, with one saying she was driving from Essex to Sunderland and had room for four people.

Staff at Hays Travel Solihull said they were sending love to fellow travel colleagues.

"As an ex-Thomas Cook store, we know exactly how it feels and how upsetting and worrying this time may be," they said.

Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association president Joanne Dooey said: "This is devastating for the industry and a disastrous blow for regional connectivity."

Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles, who announced his airline is stepping in to run 16 former Flybe routes, said: "The collapse of a long-standing airline like Flybe marks a desperately sad day, especially for the airline’s dedicated team of employees and for customers facing disruption to their journeys."

A former pilot with Flybe told Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show the airline was brought down by ‘incompetent senior management, not coronavirus’, while a former regular passenger said the airline offered ‘poor customer service’ and was ‘unreliable’ and ‘expensive’.

Ryanair senior communications manager Alejandra Ruiz said: "We are working with the CAA to accommodate passengers who may have been left stranded or have had their travel plans disrupted by the collapse of the airline. We again call for more robust and frequent stress tests on financially weak airlines and tour operators so customers are not the ones who suffer."

Premier Holidays director of sales and marketing Debbie Goffin, said: "Everyone at Premier Holidays is sad to hear that FlyBe has ceased trading. Our customers and their travel plans are our priority and we will be contacting them to reduce the impact of this news.

"We have a number of customers booked on Flybe flights throughout 2020 and we will be dealing with these departures in date order. We appreciate your patience while this takes place.

"Our thoughts go out to our friends and colleagues at Flybe and to all customers whose holidays have been affected. All of our bookings are financially protected so we will now be working to find alternative routes or flights for customers."

CAA chief executive Richard Moriarty said: "This is a sad day for UK aviation."

Ralph Hollister, analsyst travel and tourism at GlobalData, said: "Flybe blamed a number external factors for its prolonged demise, such as maintenance costs, the weaker pound and rising fuel costs. However its competitors had to deal with these issues too. The main difference is that Ryanair and British Airways possess focussed business models. Flybe was caught between the two, offering short-haul flights for prices that were not necessarily low cost.

"The impact of coronavirus may have also provided the perfect opportunity for a Virgin Atlantic led consortium to stop injecting money into a business that seemed to be some way away from achieving profitability."

He said the collapse of Monarch should have set alarm bells ringing for Flybe, which should have scaled back unprofitable routes sooner.

"Coronavirus could determine the fate of other struggling airlines on a global scale as worldwide demand for travel plummets. Larger airlines are also not immune from the impacts of the virus. Virgin itself announced emergency measures, including cutting executive pay and urging other staff to take unpaid leave."

Abby Penston, CEO of Focus Travel Partnership said: "The Focus Travel Partnership team and our 60 independent TMC partners have been saddened to learn that Flybe has gone out of business. We were aware of the airline’s ongoing business issues, and all our partners are well-prepared and practiced in rearranging travel at short notice. 

"The airline’s collapse will leave a major gap in the UK’s domestic flight route network as it provided vital connections to long-haul destinations. Whilst the demise will impact our partners located in the Channel Islands, Scotland, Northern Ireland and UK regions, we are heartened to see that other airlines are already beginning to step in to fill routes.

"As a member of the Business Travel Association, we are also pleased to support their dedicated recruitment webpage for Flybe colleagues who find themselves without a job and will be sure to highlight this facility to our members on our own extranet."